Former home secretary backs suspended home ministry officials

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The four Union Home Ministry officials suspended over issuing Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence to Islamic tele-preacher Zakir Naik’s NGO Islamic Research Foundation have got a former Home Secretary’s support.

“I don’t know the details of the case but the suspension is not called for. Such actions generally demoralise people,” former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on border security here on Tuesday.

He said if such actions are taken, the bureaucracy will stop taking any decisions.

Pillai admitted that Zakir Naik’s is a high-profile case but went into add: “From my experience, I can state that the Home Secretary should be in a position to defend his officials in such cases.”

Four officials of the Union Home Ministry were suspended on September 1 for their “lapses” in renewing the FCRA licence of the NGO Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) run by Zakir Naik.

Naik’s Peace TV and his speeches have come under the scanner of the central security agencies at home and abroad for allegedly propagating radical views, especially in the aftermath of the July 1 Dhaka terror siege that left 22 people dead.